In Review: Stargirl (S2 – EP7) Summer School: Chapter Seven

Synopsis: In chapter Seven of Summer School. When the guilt over Brainwave’s death becomes too much to handle, Yolanda is forced to make a heartbreaking decision.

The Story

Chapter Seven focuses very much on Yolanda. While Blue Valley is making preparations for their fourth of July celebrations. Yolanda is having violent flashbacks of the night that she was forced into killing Brainwave. Meanwhile, Courtney is helping Cameron out with 4th decorating the town. She is completely oblivious to her friend’s struggle. At least for the time being. However, when she does latch on. She wonders where it could be Eclipso amplifying Yolanda’s guilt.

Elsewhere, Mike of helping his father Pat rebuild his giant robot, but gets distracted by the broken black diamond, which Pat has kept hold of in case it can be used to trap Eclipso.

The Acting

Yvette Monreal puts in a powerhouse performance as Yolanda struggles to deal with her guilt over the death of Brainwave. I thought the scenes of Yolanda going to confession at the start and throughout the episode were really effective and brilliantly performed. As were most of her scenes. Particularly those when she was hallucinating. The one that capped it off is toward the end of the episode where she is confronted by Brainwave who claims that he got into her head just before he died and has been waiting.

It was really good to see Christopher James Baker make a return as Brainwave as he really made the most of the few scenes he had and truly tormented Yolanda.

Overall

This was a really strong episode, which managed to keep Eclipso’s story moving while simultaneously allowing for Yolanda’s story to unfold. I liked how the writers managed to keep it rather ambiguous as to whether the hallucinations were in Yolanda’s head. Ultimately, this all leads to Yolanda deciding to leave the JSA. But somehow I don’t think that will be a permanent decision. At least I hope not because she is one of the better characters on the show.